Staples, today and tomorrow only is offering a coupon that drops the cost of Windows 8 Professional to $39.99. This is not to be confused with the Microsoft upgrade price of $39.99 sold direct, Staples is offering the non-upgrade bare drive copy of Windows 8 Pro.

The coupon is only valid at retail stores, and many stores are already low on stock due to launch day traffic. The coupon does expire tomorrow, but Staples does have a store policy to accept coupons up to two weeks after their expiration date. Also, Office Depot accepts competitor coupons.

This is the best deal we’ve seen for those not upgrading from a previous version of Windows. It is an excellent option for Mac owners as well, though requests for comment on Boot Camp support went un-answered from Apple today. Apple has a long-standing history of not responding to requests for comment from PhoneNews.com.

Also, Microsoft is offering free Media Center “Pro Pack” upgrade keys for any owner of Windows 8 Professional, through the end of the year. The Pro Pack adds Windows Media Center, MPEG-2 decoding, and DVD playback support to Windows 8. The Pro Pack is necessary even if upgrading from a previous version of Windows that included these features.

Christopher Price is the Founding Editor of PhoneNews.com. Today, he leads the team building Console, Inc. - a new kind of Android™ device. He still likes to pontificate... a lot. You can visit his personal blog at ChristopherPrice.net.

We just picked up our copies, Silicon Valley stores are already nearly out of stock completely… many already are.

The boxed copy of Windows 8 Pro is confusing to say the least. We’re unable to confirm if Microsoft is officially permitting bare drive installs with the copy in this deal. It is the same $69 boxed copy sold from other retailers. Problem is there’s no mention of “upgrade” on the box.

The box is labeled WIN PRO 8 32-BIT/64-BIT ENGLISH VUP DVD next to the sales barcodes. VUP in Microsoft lingo refers to an upgrade copy.

Windows 8 OEM / System Builder sells for $139. It’s possible Microsoft is making this confusing as a form of price discrimination, ensuring OEMs have to pay full/higher price whereas MacBook owners can pay $69 and “sorta pirate” but not get any grimace from Redmond.

Either way, it appears this copy at Staples, and all the other retailers offering boxed copies, as well as Microsoft’s $69 “non-upgrade” copy, will run on bare drive systems. If Microsoft intends for it to be an upgrade-only, we’re pretty sure they’re intentionally trying to hide that to pump sales.

If this sounds familiar, Microsoft knowingly let Windows 7 upgrade copies be used as both the original and upgrade license, effectively letting anyone pirate a Windows 7 upgrade into a full retail copy. Here, Microsoft seems to only be going one step further.

Final verdict from a Microsoft rep: The Windows 8 Pro retail boxes are licensed as upgrade discs only, but they do acknowledge that the packaging makes no mention of this fact. And, Microsoft does acknowledge that a bare drive system can install and activate from this offering, even though it may not be intended to.

Of course, they also market Windows as being available for Mac. To follow the letter of Microsoft policy, you would have to purchase either Win 7, or Win 8 System Builder media for a Mac. However, it’s clear from the packaging that Microsoft is directing normal people to the retail “upgrade” media for that purpose anyways.

I saw an Amazon.com post where the user bought the Windows 8 Pro Retail box and a new SSD. The install went fine, but when he went to activate it, the activation failed. When he called Microsoft, they told him he bought the wrong version and that he needed to buy the System Builder version, which is $139 instead of the $39 price at Staples today.

Can you confirm successfully activating this Windows 8 Pro Retail version on an originally bare drive? (Note: Sure you can wipe the drive using the installer, but I am guessing the installer marks down whether you had a licensed version installed on the hard drive previously.)

Even if that were correct, I suspect a double install-in-place (a la Win7) would resolve that. Microsoft can’t claim this time around that the Windows 8 Pro retail copies aren’t upgrades… they would have to note that somewhere on the product packaging to legitimately make that claim.

I believe the retail boxes of Windows 8 Pro do indicate that you must be using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, although subtly.

Also, people may not have an extra licencensed version of Windows 7, Vista, or XP to install first. This is particularly true if you just built a PC from scratch. Furthermore, if you have an SSD in that computer, everything will run only optimally if you install the operating system to a secure erased or factory initialized SSD. If you install Windows 8 on an SSD that already had an OS on it, even if you delete all the partitions in the Windows 8 Installation Wizard, all the NAND flash in the drive is not initialized and writing new data to those unerased memory blocks will be slower than if you started with a factory initialized or secure erased drive. This is unlike a mechanical hard drive where memory blocks can simply be overwritten with the new data. In an SSD the memory blocks have to be erased first, and this is a relatively slow process. This also causes a slight bit of unecessary wear on the NAND flash as well, as the SSD memory cells have a limited number of times they can be erased.

Anyway, please let me know what your results are, it would be much appreciated. If you are unable to properly activiate, it was a bit sly of Microsoft to remove the word “Upgrade” from this retail version and just mention is subtly in the literature.

Was there a installation of a prior version of Windows on the drive before you used the Windows 8 Pro Install wizard to erase and/or format the drive before installing Windows 8 Pro to the singularly remaining “unallocated space” entry?

I bought my $40 Win8 pro from Staples tonight and was able to directly install it to a brand new SAMSUNG 830 but the installation would not activate no matter what I tried. I wound up installing win7/32 real quick and then win8/64 right over the top as a custom install, not an upgrade and successfully activated. I too was under the impression that this was a full copy and not an upgrade and from what I’ve gleaned so far the disk is the full blown version, its your key that restricted in what will activate.

There’s nothing on the outside packaging to indicate that it is an upgrade. The requirements on the packaging make no note of previous Windows ownership as a prerequisite.

The packaging does make note of cautions if you are upgrading from different versions, about how you will have to reinstall programs and such, but it does not state that this is an upgrade-only media, nor do those advisements indicate that this is upgrade-only. They are the same advisements we have seen on retail, full version media warning folks that, unlike OS X, you will have to jump through hoops if you are upgrading from old versions of Windows.

Documentation inside the box is irrelevant, as once you’ve opened the packaging, you can’t return the software.

As has been noted above, you may have to do an in-place upgrade and install, some are successful without, but we’ve seen enough problems that we’re recommending you do a clean install atop the first installation. Then activate Windows.

You can still do a clean install, the Windows installer makes note of the presence of an existing Windows install before you format the drive (in a custom installation).

As to SSD performance, while there may be some minor impact, it would be extremely minor to any real-world SSD performance. Just do an ATA Secure Erase, install Windows 8, then reinstall Windows 8 atop it. This is the most sure-fire way to have a clean drive (as much as Microsoft allows) and use retail media.

Microsoft should stop interfering with retail media activation (when there is not a prior install), or recall all shipped retail units and re-label them as upgrade media. That’s our opinion, but we doubt Microsoft will do it.

It’s highly ironic that Microsoft is taking this course, since when Windows 7 launched, Microsoft touted how it could be easily installed on a Mac with retail media. With Windows 8 retail media, they seem to be acting as if every PC sold already comes with Windows.

We are still testing, and have some running theories as to why some are able to bare-drive install, and others are not. We’ll keep you updated once we have some more tangible conclusions.

-It is dissappointing that Microsoft makes no mention on the Retail Box that a prior installation of Windows was necessary.

-I agree the SSD wear and loss in performance is extremely marginal.

-It is odd that Microsoft would allow you to activate Windows 8 Pro when installed on a disk that had a previously non-activated installation of Windows, including Windows 8 itself.

-This is just a guess, but as for the successful bare drive installations, perhaps some Microsoft Server (Windows Activation Server or Windows Update Server) recognizes the machine (via NIC MAC address) as having had a previous version of Windows installed on it and allows the Windows 8 Pro Retail Box activation.

I’m ordering a new desktop with a SSD and HDD, so I guess I just install my old Vista copy onto the HDD and then when I run the Windows 8 upgrade, I can install that on the SSD, and at the same time format the HDD to remove Vista.

The double-install method is unchanged from Windows Vista and Windows 7. When Windows Installer runs, it makes a note during the arming process if a previous version of Windows was present (activated or not). This is all the verification that Vista/7/8 have needed, even if you are “upgrading” from the same install media that you just ran.

Most theorize that Microsoft did this to provide a balance between piracy and Linux. A person that has spent money purchasing upgrade media in the best case is doing a double-install to circumvent that they lost their media, or that their PC didn’t come with recovery media.

In the worst case, the user is a content Windows user, instead of defecting to pirating Windows, or worse, buying a Mac or installing a free OS like Linux. Microsoft has made billions by being the worlds most-pirated operating system, they probably would rather have that title that lose a quarter of their market share.

Just a thought. Can you install Windows 8 to a USB device such as a flash drive or external hard drive, and then plug that into a computer, and have it be the detected prior OS installation? Furthermore, you could avoid wiping it so that you can use it again if you ever needed to reinstall windows on your fresh and clean secure erased SSD, correct?

I believe the $40 “Upgrade Version” and the $140 System Builder “Full Version” produce exactly the same result if each product’s initial requirements were met. The “Upgrade Version” has the requirement of detecting a previously installed version of Windows, and if it not, prevents you from activating it’s installation. The System Builder “Full Version” does not have this additional requirement.

If you have a prior Version of Windows installed on any hard drive attached to your computer, there is no issue using the “Upgrade Version.” If you don’t, you can simply use the the Upgrade version to first install a non activated version, and then boot of the smae $40 “Upgrade” DVD again to install a activatable Windows 8 Pro Operating system, because the second time around, the installer detects the initial (but unactivated) copy of Windows 8 Pro you just installed. Note: Don’t enter the upgrade product key when doing the first install if you had a computer with no detectable copy of windows.

I am now thoroughly confused. I am a Mac owner that has never owned a copy of Windows on this computer nor do I have any install discs from old Windows computers. I recently installed Parallels and have been trying to install the free preview version of Windows 8 but it keeps failing. Now I am willing to just buy Windows 8 but I would obviously prefer the $69.99 version. I have a Staples two blocks away and can buy the Windows 8 Upgrade version for either $69.99 or with the coupon if they still except it. I just dont want to open the box and try to install it only to have it fail and they I cant return an open box. My only option then would be to find and buy Windows 7 System Builder and install that first, then try to use the Windows 8 upgrade. If I cant use the coupon, I would be paying $69.99 for 8 and at least $91 for Windows 7 System Builder from Amazon. I would also have to wait a couple days for shipping as I have been unable to find a download version of System Builder for Windows 7 or 8. The total cost would be $161 vs. if I just buy the Windows 8 Pro System Builder for $139.99 from Amazon. But then I would also have to wait for it to be shipped. I thinks its ridiculous that Microsoft is not selling the System Builder versions of Windows 8 as a download from their website. Its also impossible to find in retail stores. The only option that I have found is online retailers.

My initial thought is that you only need the $40 Staples Upgrade Version. You just need to install it twice. But I have no experience with Parallels on a Mac and activation on a Mac, or with a Mac at all.

Clearly your safest bet is to buy the System Builder Version on Amazon.com for $140 and wait though. It is the least likely to cause you problems.

I don’t believe under any circumstances that you need to buy any prior versions of Windows. That would just be a waste of money since the Wndows 8 Pro Retail box should also be capable of being used to create a” prior installation” that can then be detected in a subsequent installation using the same DVD.

Heading to Staples now to give the Windows 8 Update a try. I need to have the actual disk. Tried downloading from Microsoft but they make you download a Install Assistant which is an .exe file not an .iso file. Parallels for Mac cant use the exe unless there is already a Windows version installed.

Windows 8 users who noticed that the operating system can’t be activated after the installation may want to try the following workaround that worked to activate when installing Windows 7 using an upgrade on a clean PC.

Open regedit by pressing Windows-q, entering regedit and selecting the result from the list of hits.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
Change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0
Go back to the start screen and enter cmd there.
Right-click Command Prompt and select to run it as administrator.
Type slmgr /rearm on the command line and hit enter.
Reboot Windows now.
Run the activation utility afterwards, enter your product key to activate Windows.

I was one of those wanting to buy and install the cheaper upgrade version of Windows 8 Pro. After many difficulties, I just ended up ordering the full (non-upgrade) version of Windows 8 Pro System Builder Disc from Amazon for $99 minus $10 instant rebate and free shipping. I then upgraded my Parallels7 to Parallels 8 for $49.99. Everything works fine other than the fact that Windows 8 really takes some getting used to on a laptop. It really seems like the user interface was built for a tablet and I’m just not sure how great it is for a laptop